St John On Your Own or Excursion

[CTFamilyCruisers]

We (DH, DS9, DD5 and myself) are on the Eastern Magic in April. We have been to St. Thomas before and kind of feel like "been there, done that" and would like to check out St. John. I am trying to decide if I should stick to one of the cruise excursions or take the ferry to St John, rent a car (a jeep would be fun), and explore the island on our own. We want to spend some time at the beaches. The excursions all seem pretty short, once you factor in transportation time. We are doing the Golden Eagle Catamaran on St. Maarten so I want something a little different than a sail/snorkel trip. Has anyone done St John on your own? Would you recommend it or is it just better to stick with one of the excursions?

 

[Tylerandalliesmom]

We went to St John for our 10 year anniversary. Renting a jeep was easy ($50 three years ago) You can't get lost for long. Many of the beaches were along the same road so we would drive and stop wherever we wanted. The only thing I worry about is time.

 

[mickeyboat]

We did it on our own last March. Since we weren't on an excursion, and we had to tender into St. Thomas, we didn't get off the ship until after 9AM. We had to wait for a taxi to Red Hook and we made the 10AM ferry. We didn't get to St. John until around 10:30 or so. We walked around Cruz Bay (we honeymooned on St. John and wanted to visit some of our old haunts), had some lunch, walked along the beach for a while, and then bought ferry tickets to return. We had to make sure to get back before the last tender (I think it was at 4:30). It didn't leave us much time to explore the island. I am not sure we would have gotten a lot of use out of renting a jeep. If we had wanted to have a beach day, I think we would have taken a taxi to Trunk Bay.

BTW, We had 3 and 4 year old DD's with us. Their ages limited us to only the St. John island tour excursion. Having driven on St. John before, and having a child who tends to get car sick, we opted out of that option.

I have also heard of people renting jeeps in St. Thomas and taking them over on the car ferry. I don't know about that ferry schedule, or even if rental agencies will allow it.

Hope you have a great time. St. John is not to be missed. Good luck!

Denae

 

[jel0511]

We go to St. John often and getting around St. John is easy, becasue there are only 3 main roads. They do not circumvent the island, so you have to drive to one end and turn around and drive back. Renting a car in St. John is easy, we always use Denzil Clyne's. All the car rental places are a short walk from the pier and easy to find. Just call the car rental place you arrange with and get directions, as some aren't a straight walk. Here is a good website about St. John and will list all the rental car companies. www.stjohnusvi.com You'll probably end up with about 4 hours on St. John by doing it yourself. If you can catch the 9AM Red Hook ferry, you'll be on St. John my 9:30AM. I'd advise being back in Cruz Bay by 1:30 so you can return the car and make the 2pm return ferry to Red Hook. This will give you plenty of time to fight the cruise traffic and ensure your return to the Magic for it's 4:30PM depature. The traffic on St. Thomas trying to get from Red Hook to Charlotte Amalie can be brutal. It has taken me an hour to get there, when there are a lot of ships in port. Since the ferry runs every hour, the 3PM doesn't give you enough cushion to ensure you'll make it back prior to departure. St. John is a beautiful island, one of the many reasons why we continue to return. Just remember bug spray, as the mosquitos on St. John are viscious any time of year!!! If you have any more specific questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[logan1_2000]

I had been planning to do an excursion for St. John on our upcoming 4/2 cruise, but after some other threads a few months back, some intiiated by a question I asked, I became more comfortable doing it on my own and that is how DW and DS,9, and I will get to Trunk Bay. We did Magan's Bay on our own last time and it was fine, this just involves a ferry ride is all, but it seems like there is a large population doing it and you get more destination time than what I have read on the excursions--the $ likely comes out pretty close to even in our case is my guess.